By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo
God has placed his goodness in created things that’s why we get attracted to them. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) There are many desirable qualities in these things that God created or many good stuffs in them that delights us. Seas, stars, sunsets, music, food, —and especially the unique goodness and attractiveness in His creation of persons, who are made in His image and likeness. The relationship and friendship we build with persons is delightful and inexhaustible. God has even shared with us His creativity, so that we can create even more beautiful things such as art, discoveries of science, powers of technology and delights of society and culture. We naturally fall in love with them because these are God’s gifts for mankind to enjoy.
But what we are seeking in nature, in creativity, in human love is desirable only because it is a bit like God. All that we love in creatures is a reflection of the Creator. But in Him alone, can we find everything we are seeking in them. The reflections of His perfections in the mirror of created things should not make us get addicted or attached with those images in that mirror. Because when we get addicted on those images of the mirror, seeking our happiness there, the mirror breaks and our happiness shatters. The reflections are real, but they are only reflections. They point back to the Author or Creator who has the full dose of goodness compared to the small amount of goodness created things have.
The lesson is, God is what we need, not creatures. He is all we need, and He is the only One we need. For if we need something else besides God, something in addition to God, then God is not God. Have you ever wondered the mystery in our desires? They have no limit. We are never totally and absolutely satisfied. Why? Because they are designed to be directed to an Infinite Being. They are about God. We have a God-sized desire that only a God-sized Being can satisfy. This summarizes the whole meaning of life, in St. Augustine’s famous line: “You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” This should simplify our life and free us from worry. Jesus tells us through a worrisome Martha, “There is only one thing necessary.” (Luke 10:38-42) And it’s Him.
There is no thought more liberating, more simplifying, more unifying than this. Our lives can be one. We do not need to be torn apart, harried, hassled, bothered and bewildered. We can become one great persons by having one great love. Just look at the saints. For we are what we love. Our love is our destiny. St. Augustine says your love is your gravity (the pulling force of your life). If your love is money, you will become greedy. If your love is pleasure, you will become lustful. If your love is God, you will become like God having everything and needful of nothing. He is the One we need to seek, and find, and meet, and love and serve in all things. Because everything we seek, every good, every happiness, every joy, every perfection is in Him.
Sin is a lack of faith. A lack of faith that we can find everything in God and not in His created things. It does not mean we get rid of His created things because these are His gifts but we ought to use them properly and not idolize them or over-desire them but use them for His Glory and spreading of His Kingdom. “If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them. And if people were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much more powerful is the one who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator. Yet these people are little to be blamed, for perhaps they go astray while seeking God and desiring to find him. For while they live among his works, they keep searching, and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful. Yet again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?” (Wisdom 13:3-9)
